While details around the schedule for the upcoming NBA season began to surface over the weekend, the league has released more specifics, including when the playoffs and Finals will begin, the date of a potential Game Seven and the fact that teams will play two preseason games apiece.

Commissioner David Stern announced after Friday’s successful bargaining session that the season will tip off with a Christmas Day triple-header, presumably the same slate as originally planned—Celtics at Knicks, Heat at Mavericks, Lakers at Bulls. Most, and possibly all, of the other 24 teams will begin their seasons the day after Christmas, Dec. 26, NBA.com reports.

David Stern says the NBA season will begin Dec. 25 with three games. (AP Photo)

The 66 games will be played over 119 days (not including the four-day All-Star break), meaning teams will play an average of 3.9 games a week, the same pace as during the 50-game schedule that followed the 1998-99 lockout. Teams play 3.5 games per week in a normal, 82-game schedule.

An average of 8.3 games will be played each day, compared to the usual 7.4.

While the NBA, since 2004, has avoided having games the Monday night of the NCAA national championship game, that likely won’t be the case this year, according to NBA.com.

The playoffs will tip off on Saturday, April 28, just two days after the regular season wraps up and a week later than usual. The 1999 playoffs didn't start until May 9, NBA.com notes.

The Finals will begin on Tuesday, June 12, and a Game Seven would be played on Tuesday, June 26. That means, according to the site, that the NBA Draft should be held on Thursday, June 28, but the league has not yet confirmed the date of the draft.

All-Star Weekend will go on as planned, but the two games in London between the Nets and Magic will probably be nixed.